Periodic Activity Report/3rd Period - Ifremer

ESONET Contract no.036851/Periodic Activity Report/3 rd Period
2.6.2 Progress towards objectives – tasks worked on and achievements made
Task 6a) - Core services stakeholders
The attendance of IFREMER, FFCUL & SLR at events and conferences, the workshops that
have been organised, the stands visited and exhibitors approached in the previous period
resulted in more and more equipment manufacturers and service providers becoming aware of
the ESONET NoE. Industry players have shown increasing interest since the start of the
demonstration missions (DMs). Equipment manufacturers have seen that funds are spent on
ocean observatory activities. As a result, companies have become more pro-active in
populating the Yellow Pages of ESONET suppliers. This was apparent at the 2 nd Best
Practices Workshop on 8-9 October 2009 at IFREMER-Brest. In June 2009, at the VISO
Workshop in Tromso, Norway, industry stakeholders of ESONET formed a working group to
discuss how the service companies and customers of ESONET observatories could contribute
to the implementation of ocean observatories in Europe. At the Steering Committee Meeting
in Amsterdam in December 2009, this initiative was pursued by defining the role of the
industry core services stakeholders in the implementation plan for ESONET.
Task 6b) – Regional services stakeholders
HELLENIC SITE: Dissemination of data and information products of the stand-alone
POSEIDON-Pylos Observatory (Hellenic site): All data produced by the POSEIDON-Pylos
observatory have been integrated into the POSEIDON information system. The daily files in
ASCII/MEDATLAS or NetCDF formats are made available to the scientific community
through an ftp server. This type of dissemination is mainly for operational systems that use
automated download procedures. Off-line data are also made available through the web
system of the POSEIDON system (www.poseidon.hcmr.gr). This web page offers several
functionalities for end-users and regional services, including
• a quick look at the latest data (a subsample of parameters) in tabular form. This is an
open service that allows users to have an overview of the latest marine observations in
their area of interest. It is mainly targeted to the wider user community (general
public) and to regional services; meteorological, surface oceanographic (temperature,
waves, currents), water column (salinity, temperature, ambient/biological noise) and
seabed (temperature, water column pressure/tsunami) parameters are displayed;
• a viewing service (static graphical display) of a time series of the last 15 days. This
service is also open to all users and allows a detailed overview of the variability
occurring over the previous 2 weeks. The service is targeted to both the wider public
and scientific users of the system and thus includes all parameters monitored by the
buoy network.
Discovery and download service for all data of the system: The data that have been collected
during the whole POSEIDON-network operation are easily accessible through a Web
interface to the system's database. The database is updated daily, offering full access to both
archived and recent data. The user has also access to multiple metadata information regarding
the buoy sensors, location, operational period and other combined information. This service is
targeted to the scientific community and is restricted to registered users.
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